The Royal Institution of Naval Architects invites papers on all aspects of the design and operation of gas carriers and offshore systems for presentation at the conference Design, Construction and Operation of Natural Gas Carriers and Offshore Systems. This timely conference will address key issues related to the future of the natural gas market. A significant growth in the number of gas carrying vessels is expected, resulting from both an increase in demand and the current programme of scrapping older vessels. While some companies are looking at the possible economies of scale of larger vessels (in the range of 175,000 - 250,000 cu.m), others are looking at options for developing small vessels to exploit shortsea and coastal trades in natural gas.

New alternatives to LNG including compressed/pressurised natural gas (CNG/PNG), where the gas is stored under pressure at ambient or semi-refrigeration temperatures, are also being developed. In addition, there is a growing interest in floating production, storage and offloading systems and re-gasification tankers and plants designed to avoid the need to construct huge land-based processing and distribution centres.

This highly specialized event, which is sponsored by Lloyd's Register, will be held in Busan (Korea) 14-15 September 2006. If you wish to submit a paper for this event, send a short abstract by the 3 January 2006. Papers should address the following:

• Design of larger capacity vessels
• Design of Shortsea & Coastal Vessels
• Greater flexibility in design to cater for spot market trading
• Floating plants/vessels
• Alternatives to LNG – CNG, PNG etc.
• Optimisation of power plant in gas carrying vessels
• Issues associated with the partial filling of tanks